Trivia / Obi-Wan Kenobi

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• Ability over Appearance: Despite Rupert Friend's Grand Inquisitor looking and sounding very different from both the Star Wars Rebels version of the character and the live-action Pau'ans seen in Revenge of the Sith, many were won over by Friend's performance.
• Approval of God:
  • Micheal Stackpole, the creator of Corran Horn, was very excited by the Easter Egg teasing the character's return in canon.
  • James Earl Jones gave his blessing for Matthew Wood and the sound team to use the Respeecher technology to synthesize his voice for this show. Both him and his family were very impressed with how the final product turned out.
• Awesome, Dear Boy:
  • After years of being unsure if he would return to the role, Ewan McGregor really devoted time to getting back into the mindset and portrayal of Obi-Wan for this series, going so far as to rewatch the entire Skywalker Saga and read some Science Fiction novels to prepare himself.
  • Hayden Christensen was excited to reprise his role as Vader/Anakin after 17 years. He also took things a step further on refreshing himself on the franchise by watching both The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels to see what was done with his character in those shows.
  • Despite retiring from composing anything Star Wars related after the Sequel Trilogy, John Williams contacted Kathleen Kennedy and requested to compose the main theme for this show, simply because Obi-Wan never had his own character theme before, and Williams wanted to write one. You can listen to it here.
  • Zach Braff immediately signed on to play Freck in this show because he wanted to be in something Star Wars related, and because he got to act alongside Ewan McGregor.
• Content Leak: B-Roll footage from Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader's initial encounter in the third episode (specifically the part where Obi-Wan is Force-pushed) leaked out weeks before the premiere of the series.
• Creator Cameo: The kickboxer whom Obi-Wan defeats in Episode 2 is played by Liang Yang, the chief Fight Choreographer for the series as well as Rogue One and the Sequel Trilogy (wherein he plays the Tonfa-Trooper who fights Finn and a member of Snoke's Praetorian Guard).
• Dawson Casting:
  • Although Reva Sevander does not have an explicit age, the fact that she was a preteen during the events of Order 66 suggests she's approximately 18-22 years old; her actress Moses Ingram was 27 years old when she joined the cast of the series.
  • One episode features flashbacks to a practice bout between Anakin and Obi-Wan when the former was still a Padawan. Hayden Christensen was about twice the age of his character when those scenes were shot and, while it's not too obvious due to Hayden looking younger than he actually is, the Anakin from those flashbacks still looks noticeably older than his Attack of the Clones self. This also applies to a lesser extent to Hayden's portrayal of Darth Vader, since Vader is only 32 years old at this point in time while Hayden was in his early forties, which is closer to how old Vader was during the events of the Original Trilogy.
  • The AOTC-era flashback also features 50 year old Ewan McGregor playing Obi-Wan, who was in his mid 30s at the time.
• Distanced from Current Events:
  • The series premiere happened to be a mere three days after the worst school shooting in the United States in a decade, in which a gunman killed 19 fourth graders and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas. By pure coincidence, the opening scene of the series depicts Order 66 — showing a class of Jedi Younglings going through meditation moves with their teacher, only to have Clone Troopers barge in and start shooting at them (no Younglings die on screen, but their teacher does after a protracted fight). Disney+ quickly put up a disclaimer warning about it, pointing out that this is a continuation of the Order 66 scene in Revenge of the Sith which was made years ago (which showed Younglings in the Temple as it came under attack), but warning that in light of recent tragic events it might be upsetting to some viewers.
  • A warning was given again in Part 5, when a flashback to these events actually shows Anakin cutting down Younglings with his lightsaber (which was kept offscreen in the movie with a discretion shot), and on top of this Reva/Third Sister reveals that she knows Vader is Anakin because she was one of the Younglings we saw in the first scene and personally witnessed him killing her classmates in the Jedi Temple. She goes on to explain that she survived by hiding among the bodies of her friends and playing dead — which is disturbingly similar to how a girl at the Uvalde shooting survived.
  • A final warning was given in Part 6 for the same events, although here none of the actual violence itself is shown, and is merely depicted through a fragmented flashback of the relevant imagery.
• DVD Commentary: The Blu-ray and UHD include commentary by Deborah Chow on the last episode, the first commentary ever included on a Disney+ original show's physical release.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • Rupert Friend spent 4 hours in a makeup chair to physically become the Grand Inquisitor. This would explain why he appears so much more human than Pau'ans in the past, as he has a much more significant presence and making him go through even more than that every time he appeared on screen would have made filming a nightmare.
  • Much like in Revenge of the Sith, Hayden Christensen went through a long, arduous process when becoming the burned, scarred visage behind the Vader mask.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • Obi-Wan's sheer terror upon encountering Darth Vader face-to-face in Part III was more than just acting. Ewan McGregor admitted in interviews that seeing Hayden Christensen in full costume walking straight towards him legitimately frightened him, drawing on his fear of Darth Vader when he first saw A New Hope as a child, which added to Obi-Wan's panicked demeanor while fighting him.
  • Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan's reunion in the finale episode of the series also had a lot of weight behind it, as both Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson were rather emotional seeing each other again for the first time in 23 years.
• Fake American: Aside from Australians Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse reprising their roles as Owen and Beru, we have New Zealander Simone Kessell using an American accent for her portrayal of Breha Organa.
• God Never Said That: After the series was released, there were rumours circulating in news outlets that Lucasfilm was considering doing a second season of the show, and many fans ran with them. In reality, such consideration has never been made by the producers, who always intended for the show to be a limited production. However, Ewan McGregor has said that he would be up to reprising the role of Obi Wan Kenobi if asked.
• Inspiration for the Work: Director Deborah Chow cited John Jackson Miller's novel Star Wars: Kenobi as a starting point and influence for the show's tone.
• Lying Creator: Both Ian McDiarmid and Liam Neeson denied their involvement as Darth Sidious / Emperor Sheev Palpatine and Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn before the release of the series. Both appear in cameo roles in the finale.
• Meme Acknowledgment: The first tweet from this show's official account consists of two simple words: "Hello there."
• Method Acting: While he didn't completely avoid it, Rupert Friend admitted that he spent as minimal time as possible watching the Grand Inquisitor's scenes in Star Wars Rebels, as he he didn't want Jason Isaacs's portrayal of the character to influence his own performance too much.
• Milestone Celebration: The series premiered on May 27th, 2022, two days after the 45th anniversary of A New Hope and the first appearance of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and was originally slated to premiere exactly on May 25th. The release date also happened to be what would have been the 100th birthday of Christopher Lee, who played Count Dooku in the prequels.
• No Stunt Double:
  • Just like in the prequel trilogy, Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor did all of their own stunts during their lightsaber duels. This is particularly noteworthy for Hayden, as it's the first time he's done stuntwork in the actual Darth Vader costume.
  • Moses Ingram also did all her lightsaber stunts, most notably including Reva's fight with Darth Vader.
• The Original Darrin:
  • After being briefly replaced by Spencer Wilding and Daniel Naprous in Rogue One, Hayden Christensen finally portrays Darth Vader in the flesh since Revenge of the Sith.
  • Since Star Wars: The Clone Wars, all of the clones have been voiced by Dee Bradley Baker in most animated shows and video games, and any live-action cameos by said clones are usually played by physical stand-ins. Obi-Wan Kenobi marks the first project in which Temuera Morrison has played the clones in any capacity since Star Wars: Battlefront II.
  • Aside from a cameo in The Rise of Skywalker, James Earl Jones was not utilized as the voice of Darth Vader in various video games released between his last appearance in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and this series, with either Matt Sloan or Scott Lawrence doing the honors. Obi-Wan Kenobi brings Jones back to provide the Dark Lord of the Sith's voice.^note Jones, however, did not actually record any dialogue and Vader's voice was synthesized via the Respeecher A.I. system (credits for which appear at the end of Part III) so that Vader would sound closer to the way he did way back in the Original Trilogy. The same method was used to recreate Mark Hamill's voice for Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Rupert Friend replaces Jason Isaacs as The Grand Inquisitor from Star Wars Rebels, as does Sung Kang with Philip Anthony-Rodriguez as the Fifth Brother from the same series.
  • Breha Organa was played by Rebecca Jackson Mendoza in Revenge of the Sith, but for this series, she's played by Simone Kessell.
  • In the French dub, Edgar Givry replaced the late Georges Claisse (who died in 2021) as Emperor Palpatine. Claisse had voiced Palpatine in all of his appearances from The Phantom Menace to the first season of The Bad Batch.
• The Other Marty: Before Grant Feely's casting, another actor was hired to play the role of young Luke Skywalker, but the other actor didn't get to shoot any scenes before creative issues put the series on pause, resulting in the role being recast with Feely.
• Produced by Cast Member: Ewan McGregor is an Executive Producer in addition to playing the title character.
• Real-Life Relative: Ewan McGregor's daughter Esther Rose plays the young spice dealer that Obi-Wan speaks to in the second episode. This adds an amusing subtext to her line "I was someone's daughter once, too".
• Release Date Change: It was originally scheduled to premiere May 25th, 2022, but was pushed back a couple days to May 27th. It was then released a few hours earlier than planned, meaning it came out on May 26th in certain timezones. ^note  The premiere was released at 9 PM Pacific Time, which meant that it only came out on the 26th for the Pacific, Mountain, Central, Alaska, and Hawaiian time zones. It was originally set to launch at 12 AM PT.
• Role Reprise:
  • Not counting his voice cameos in The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker, Ewan McGregor reprises the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the flesh for the first time since 2005's Revenge of the Sith.
  • Also not counting his voice cameo in The Rise of Skywalker, Hayden Christensen returns as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (a role he hasn't played in the flesh since the same film). For the voice of Darth Vader, James Earl Jones also returns, having last voiced him in a cameo in The Rise of Skywalker.
  • Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse reprise their roles of Owen and Beru Lars from Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
  • Jimmy Smits returns as Bail Organa, a role he last played in Rogue One.
  • This show marks the first time Temuera Morrison has physically portrayed any of the Clone Troopers since Revenge of the Sith. He cameos as a homeless trooper in episode 2 who asks Obi-Wan for some spare change.
  • Liam Neeson returns as Qui-Gon's Force Ghost, his first live-action appearance since The Phantom Menace, which was 23 years earlier.
  • In the Japanese dub, both Toshiyuki Morikawa and Daisuke Namikawa return as the titular hero and Anakin Skywalker respectively from the prequel trilogy and voice cameos, as well as Taiten Kusunoki as Darth Vader. Likewise, Hidenobu Kiuchi returns as the Fifth Brother Inquisitor from Rebels as well as Masane Tsukayama as Qui-Gon Jinn.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Mario Filio and Irwin Daayán also return as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, as well as Sebastian Llapur as Darth Vader. Likewise, Gerardo Reyero, Alfredo Gabriel Basurto and Liliana Barba also return as Bail Organa, Owen Lars and Beru Lars respectively, while José Luis Orozco returns to voice the Clone Troopers.
  • In the Hungarian dub, nearly all characters have their voices from the prequel films and Rebels animated series, most importantly Zsolt Anger as Obi-Wan after having quit the role in the later parts of The Clone Wars and Rebels. István Kovács also returned as Qui-Gon after having done very little voice work for over a decade. Palpatine's prequel voice actor, Hugó Grúber passed away in 2012 and the animated series gave him different voices, but for his non-stock footage appearance the role went back to Gábor Reviczky from the original trilogy's Special Edition dubs. An official dubbing cast sheet promoted C-3PO having his post-2016 voice, Tomasz Galbenisz, but he did not actually speak in the show. The unnamed Imperial captain of the Star Destroyer Devastator is an interesting case, as he has the same voice actor as Firmus Piett (Ádám Lux), implying that perhaps the dubbing studio thought they are the same character.
• Scully Box: The series had to rely on some standard Star Wars tricks in order to make Darth Vader appear as tall as David Prowse, as Hayden Christensen still does quite a bit of the suit performance despite being about 6 inches shorter. Characters tend to keep their distance from him in wide shots, while the close-ups use upward angles to make him more intimidating.
• Sequel Gap: This series is set 10 years after Revenge of the Sith, but was made 17 years later.
• Sequel in Another Medium: This streaming Mini Series is essentially a sequel to the theatrical film Revenge of the Sith.
• Throw It In!: According to Ewan Mc Gregor, the lighting coming off of Obi-Wan and Vader's sabers reflecting off of Anakin's exposed face was initially an accident, but everyone liked it so much that they kept it in, and even made it so that it changed from blue to red to further enhance the scene.
• Trolling Creator: When Ian McDiarmid was asked at Star Wars Celebration if he'd be appearing in the series, he said that fans shouldn't get their hopes up for him to appear "in flesh and blood". He ended up appearing briefly as a hologram.
• Troubled Production: The filming of this series was supposed to start in 2019, but just before starting, the entire pre-production was scrapped and a new writer was hired to re-write the series. According to producer Kathleen Kennedy, this had to do with finding the right tone for the story, since it takes place during one of the darkest periods of the setting and yet still had to maintain a hopeful and uplifting tone.
• Uncredited Role: Liam Neeson goes uncredited for reprising the role of Qui-Gon Jinn in Part VI.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Like The Book of Boba Fett before it, the project originated as a A Star Wars Story spin-off film, to be written by Hossein Amini and directed by Stephen Daldry. And, like the aforementioned show, it ended up reworked as a limited Disney+ series by Amini following the box office failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story in 2018. Original screenplay writer Stuart Beattie would later reveal that what became the coverage of the series was mostly the 1st film (worth about 2 hours of storyline) of a planned trilogy—which was then stretched into 6 episodes.
  • Before the casting of Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs expressed an interest in playing the Grand Inquisitor in live-action, having enjoyed voicing him on Star Wars Rebels. Isaacs would later return to voice the character in Star Wars: Tales of the Empire.
  • The series was meant to begin filming in 2020, but the scripts were purportedly delayed due to them being too similar to The Mandalorian. Production was further halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to the show being pushed back.
  • According to Indira Varma, Tala was originally Obi-Wan's love interest before Deborah Chow and Joby Harold removed the romance element.
  • Reva was originally meant to die instead of surviving to the end of the series.
  • Commander Cody was originally planned to be a big player in the series, having removed his biochip and finding Obi-Wan on Tatooine, working to protect Luke while Obi-Wan was away rescuing Leia. It was hoped that Temuera Morrison would be able to reprise the role, but there was concern that scheduling conflicts with The Book of Boba Fett would have prevented this (though he does appear as a nameless 501st Legion veteran in Episode 2)
  • The show was originally supposed to be much bleaker and depressing in the first few story drafts, but Kathleen Kennedy opted to halt production and rewrite things to make the show more hopeful and uplifting.
  • This◊ piece of concept art suggests that Obi-Wan and Vader were supposed to fight on Mustafar once more. Their first rematch happened on Mapuzo and their second was on an unnamed rocky planet.
  • According to Ewan McGregor, Obi-Wan was originally going to have become an alcoholic waiter in the first episode, where he would be abused by patrons.
• Word of God: Official Star Wars social media accounts have confirmed that the preserved dead Cosian Jedi Obi-Wan finds in the "Jedi Tomb" of the Inquisitorius is Tera Sinube.

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